I can't dance (or sing), but come to my musical

So tonight is the night, "In The Heights" opens at the South Bend Civic Theatre tonight at 7:30PM. It is my stage debut... I can't sing, I don't even read music, and I really can't dance (I pretend well) and have never been in a choreographed number. So why am I in a musical tonight?

REPRESENTATION

Our Cast (me in blue tank top)

When my friend, Aaron, the Executive Director of the theatre told me they were bringing the famed Lin-Manuel Miranda musical here... I thought whoa yes! And then I thought... oh crap... we got to do this thing right... how can I help?

The Civic has done it right, they advertised castings in Spanish, on Spanish radio, we even did auditions at La Casa de Amistad, we promoted it at Latin Dance downtown... and we got it, a diverse cast.

So why am I in the cast? Well, if I was asking people to audition for it, I couldn't be a hypocrite and sit back and say, "Thats not for me"... cause guess what, Aaron told me that the Civic should be, and is for everyone...

REPRESENTATION MATTERS

Aaron Nichols, SB Civic Theatre

So I auditioned, I warned them, I can't really sing... they told me they would push me to learn. Then I broke the news to them, I don't really dance, I do merengue and bachata cause hey, its easy and most people are worse than me so I generally look alright on the dance floor... and they again told me they would push me to be better.

I got a role, ensemble, AKA back up dancer and singer. I figured cool, I made it, and the role would not be a lot of work. I was wrong... it was a lot of work. We started months ago, several nights a week, learning the songs, learning the choreo, learning about theatre... this week I spent nearly 30 hours at the theatre.

I will reflect more on my experience later. It was hard for an engineer to be involved in a musical... it has been a challenge, but you know whats good for this soon to be forty year old? Having to learn new things, to push myself, to make myself step out of my comfort zone.

REPRESENTATION MATTERS, SO I REPRESENTED

Tonight I step out of my comfort zone. Tonight I represent Bolivia on that state, I represent local immigrants, I represent immigrant kids who might think they can never be in theatre... hey you can, look at me, this old man learned, and this old man will miss a few steps tonight, and come in a second late in a spot (or two, or three), but the show will be amazing, filled with talented local folks, singing and dancing their hearts out and telling you a beautiful story of a low income immigrant neighborhood in New York...

Enjoy the show... to my cast members, thanks for helping me along, to the crew thanks for including so many cool South Bend Latino/Immigrant things into the set, and lets break a leg tonight.

ALZA LA BANDERA!